Like Sands in the Hourglass
by Machiro-el
Summary: PRMF When a monster's powers go strange, the Rangers have a few problems.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Mystic Force is the property of Disney and Buena Vista, not me. This might have some violence later, still aren't sure how much.

* * *

**Like Sands in the Hourglass  
by Machiro-el**

* * *

It was a routine day for the Mystic Force Rangers. The store was going fine, and it seemed crowded even without any customers to bother the employees there.

That lack of bothering didn't run both ways, however, as Xander Bly happily sought out the female populace.

Vida made a face at Xander's back. Not that she wasn't glad at his attempt to lure the customers in - after all, she had a vested interest in having a job and making money - but she really wanted to be left alone and or fussed over. Maybe both at the same time. Her sister, Madison, only younger by a few minutes, was too busy rearranging the CDs to notice.

As if in response to her unseen glare, Xander sprang back towards her, triumphantly clutching a scrap of paper. "Success. As you can see, I've netted Brianne's phone number. I believe I've heard the last of your allegations my charm was better... what was it again?"

"Better suited for a five year old's plastic bracelet," Vida snapped back.

"Right," Xander said breezily. "Anyway, I'm going to call her when I get off shift."

"She'll probably have forgotten you by then," Vida snapped, secretly hoping that Xander had gotten a "rejection line" phone number.

Madison wiped her brow and glared at her sister and friend. "If you both are through, I think Chip and Nick could use some help in the stock room. I'll cover the floor."

"By yourself?" Xander asked before fluffing his collar for effect.

"I think I can handle the store for a half an hour," Madison said, hoping for the store to remain quiet so she could get a bit of peace. She didn't want to complain about things - that was Vida's provence - but she could use with some nice and quiet.

"You sure, luv? You know Xander's always here to make it easier for a lady." he said with a smile.

Vida stepped between her sister and Xander. "We're going to the stock room. Now."

"Great! Can I call what's her name now?"

Vida dragged him by selfsame collar into the back, muttering about how the girl was still in the store.

Madison turned gave her sister a grateful smile that neither her sister or her co-worker could see. "Could I help you?"

"Yeah, I'll have a cheeseburger and a large Sprite," a disheveled young man said, staring into space.

"I think you're in the wrong store," Madison said gently, still smiling. It wasn't the first time the store had been mistaken for something else, though usually for a junk shop, an antique shop, or a pawn shop - not a food store.

"Huh? Oh." He slunk off a few feet before collapsing in a heap between two display cases. Madison brushed through the crowd and checked his vitals, pleased to find a strong pulse. She wondered if he was incapacitated due to drug abuse.

She immediately regretted being the only one at the front of the store, though the others pushed out of the back as if summoned. She looked to her older sister frantically.

The prone body of the young man began to twitch and convulse before Madison could get a word out. Electrical energy arced across his chest, and in a flash he collapsed back to the floor looking almost twenty years older.

Madison drew back, the others fighting their way to her side. She looked at Vida, horrified, knowing that this was not something that the hospital could manage. She also hoped she wouldn't be required to describe what had happened, or why weird things seemed to congregate around the store.

The rest of the customers hung back, avoiding the prone form as if it was a carrier - which for all they knew it could be. Madison herself couldn't even be sure of that, to tell the truth.

"Poor guy probably strayed too close to the woods," Xander said easily. "Don't worry, I'm sure the police or the Power Rangers will be around any second now to take care of this. Maybe we'd better clear out to make it easier for them, huh? If everybody wants to come back tomorrow, make your purchases then..."

But still the crowd hung around, until Madison was tempted to start shooing them out like demented ducklings.

"VACATE!" Xander yelled, dissipating the crowd in a flash.

Madison silently nodded behind him as she crouched next to the form. How would they explain this? How _could_ they explain this? How would they even get out of here with the rumors spreading, and people probably coming back? They could hardly be Rangers if people were looking.

"Close the shutters," Xander said firmly as Chip and Nick scampered off to do as he asked. "Okay, one of us is going to have to take this guy to the proper authorities as a Ranger. The rest of us can hold the fort here."

"And how do we explain where this guy went that he ended up in Ranger custody?" Vida asked.

"Hey, the Power Rangers know everything!" Xander said, puffing his chest out. "I bet they just showed up at our back door!"

Chip snapped his fingers, dashing into the back room and morphing. "I'm going to go do that just so we have some plausible deniability. I'll be back!"

"Chip!" Nick yelled.

"It's a short trip back from Rootcore!"

The other Ranger dashed off a salute and disappeared. Nick stared after him. "Great."

Madison sighed. "We're not getting much accomplished as a team, are we?"

Xander twitched, ignoring Madison. "Right. Let's just sit around until Chip gets back. That's great."

Madison took the prone man's temperature, disturbed by how long it had been since her emergency training and how this was no longer second nature to her.

"So, how is he?" Vida asked impatiently.

"Slightly elevated temp. BP seems high. Really high, actually. Like he just ran a minute mile."

Nick considered that. "Or like he was just aged twenty years?"

Madison looked at him in confusion. "I'd, um, expect more hair and nail growth, then."

Vida tried to consider how the guy would look if that would happen. With the hair, anyway. "When Chip gets back, we'll just nail the bastard that got this guy."

Nick shrugged. "You guys said there's some weird crap going on in Briarwood. Maybe nothing happened to him. Maybe he fell in a giant sinkhole and it sucked the life out of him."

"Briarwood's weird, but not _that_ weird," Xander said casually.

A thunderous boom came from the back door. "I was in the neighborhood -- does anyone need a superhero in here!" Chip yelled at an ear-shattering decibel.

Vida winced at the noise. "Just get in here," she muttered, "before the Power Rangers get written up on the city noise ordinance."

The Yellow Ranger bounded inside, and tossed the discombobulated man over his shoulder. "Come on, Udonna and Clare have got the whole place set up to treat him. There's cloves and crap. It's awesome!"

"Right," Vida muttered.

"We can't come on, Chip," Madison explained slowly. "We have to reopen the store, remember? Toby will get suspicious if we all bolt off."

Xander looked around and rubbed his hands. "Well, I can do _that_.

Nick shook his head. "You go, I'll stay here."

"You sure, boss-man?" Xander asked.

"Totally." Nick assured him. "Just keep me appraised on how he's doing, and what did it."

"Right," Xander said, heading back towards the back of the store.

Nick sighed, grabbing a copy of Spin and hoping desperately his friends would figure out what happened.

The other four Rangers morphed and slipped quietly out of the store, circling around the block until they could reach the park across the street and use one of its trees for transportation.

As Vida reached out to touch the tree, another eruption of sound washed across them. She turned to glower at Chip before noticing a monster bounding down the street.

No, she corrected herself, _skipping_ down the street like a schoolkid on a sugar high. "Chip," Xander said, attempting to sound cool and collected. "Take the fellow to Udonna and Claire."

Chip saluted. "On it!"

Xander cracked his knuckles. "Okay guys, we in the clear?"

Vida grinned beneath her helmet. "Clear," she said.

The monster finished skipping. It seemed to be glowing a nice light brown, and let out a high-pitched giggle. It arched its hands, and strands of electricity flew out to touch each of the four Rangers.

Vida had the presence of mind to run at the monster, despite the dizziness she felt as the monster's power flew into her, and started to suck out her energy. She could see the others staggering.

She slammed into the monster, causing those streams to disrupt. "Vida, duck!" Chip called.

Vida ducked at just the right moment, and a bolt hit the monster. The monster staggered back, its aura shifting from brown to white, and the bolts changed from yellow to white. Vida felt dizzy once more, but she did manage not to pass out long enough to see a bolt streaking towards the music store.

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Expect the next installment in a week or so. I think. 


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer is in part one._

**Like Sands in the Hourglass, part 2  
Machiro-el**

Nick looked up as a figure burst through the doors of the Rockporium. He was prepared to discourage another customer before seeing the figure of a monster looming before him. He jumped out from behind the counter.

"Don't suppose I can interest you in a record. You look like a big GWAR fan."

"Grr. Argh." The monster threw a bolt of something at Nick, which narrowly missed him and turned a nearby record sleeve into a puff of dust.

"So what's your story?" Nick asked flippantly as he switched to his wizard attire. "Parents didn't love you enough?"

"Aaargh!" the monster screamed, and sent the bolt straight at Nick.

Nick sank to his knees as cold agony washed over him. His joints throbbed, his skin felt thin as tissue.

The monster cackled and skipped away as Nick struggled to do anything more than track its progress with his eyes.

He snapped open his Mystic Morpher. "Guys, help." His lungs felt leaden and liquid.

"We're on our way!" he heard Chip call.

---->

Nick's eyes were open and nothing made sense. Shapes blurred together and colors mingled in strange rainbows. "Nick, are you all right?" he heard Udonna ask underneath a strange buzzing in his ears.

"Ugggh," Nick managed. "Anybody get the name of that monster that hit me?"

No one answered, the shapes he took to be his friends simply stared at him

Nick waited patiently for his vision to clear up, which it did - a bit. However, it stubbornly refused to clear completely. "Guys?"

"Nick," Xander asked, "we couldn't find the monster again. We found Koragg, and he..."

Madison said nothing, she simply threw herself into Nick's arms. Pleasant as she felt there, he couldn't help but wheeze at the impact.

"Guess that monster took more out of me than I tho-"

That was when Nick noticed the condition of his arms.

"Shi... what happened... why am I..." His arms were old and wrinkled; his brain rebelled at the look. Then he remembered the customer at the store. "It's an aging monster."

Chip nodded. "We think so. Don't worry buddy, we'll find a way to get you back to normal."

Xander grunted affirmation. "No worries."

"How BAD is it?" Nick wanted to know. "I look awful, guys."

"We think it aged you about fifty years," Madison said hesitantly. She looked around, and her gaze settled on Vida. A Vida that looked younger now than Madison.

"Vida?" Nick croaked. "It hit you too."

She nodded. "We think so. My morpher is being wacky, but I still transform right. I don't think you're up to that kind of stress right now."

"Right," Nick said. "I'll be fine in a few, if Vida can fight..."

"Nick," Udonna said firmly. "You are not well. You have several hereditary diseases, and the shock to your system from morphing could be extensive."

"Yeah," Xander added. "The only thing it did to Vida was it turned her into a thirteen year old. Didn't even know she'd changed until she demorphed. She's fine."

"And you're not," Vida added.

"Heredit-"

Madison looked down. "Diabetes, for one. Chip checked. But unlike his, yours was accellerated without any sort of treatment."

Nick wondered if he would start liking okra any minute now and rubbed his forehead. "Okay, then let's be reasonable about this. How can we affect a monster we can't directly touch?"

"And how will you know destroying it doesn't make the spell permanent?" the unmistakable voice of Clare contributed.

"Because I'm not going to be stuck as a thirteen year old forever, that's why," Vida announced.

Xander couldn't resist a grin. "Watching you in the bloom of womanhood again? V, I wouldn't miss that for the world."

Vida glared. "And this is the reason why I'm not going to be forced to go through puberty again," she said forcefully. "My parents might get some idea about putting me in pink."

Nick gazed in disbelief at the liverspots covering his skin. His deep skin had slowly faded with time, it appeared, and now had a transparency to it. He felt unnerved. Nick knew people in their seventies who looked better than he did. Whatever this monster did, it aged you HARD.

Madison stepped forward. "It's okay, Nick."

Vida, who was glaring at Xander, added, "We'll get you back to normal, Nick.

He sighed. "It's not okay. But until it is, I guess I'm going to have to make due."

"And in the meantime," Udonna said, "We are without a Red Ranger." She seemed to be pondering things. What things, Nick wasn't sure.

* * *

Should have the next chapter out in a week or two, barring freak blizzards or el nino. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Like Sands in the Hourglass part 3  
by Machiro-el**

Nick looked frustrated. "Isn't there any way to de-age me long enough to let me fight? I want to get the monster that did this to me. And did that to Vida." He paused. "And what about the other guy that got aged in our shop?"

Chip shrugged. "There was nothing for us to do here, so I sent him to the county hospital. We can't tell if he was aged or deaged, and he was in pretty good shape. Ya know, considering."

Udonna nodded. "His disorientation was simply residual effects from the spell."

"Great," Nick said, struggling up. "I've got to do something." What, he wasn't sure, since it was apparent that his fellow Rangers weren't probably going to let him leave the safety of their headquarters, much less battle a monster.

"What you'll do is get some bedrest," Xander added. The others nodded in response. "We'll handle this."

"Guys, we're going to need a Red Ranger. You can make the Titan Dragon Formation, but we're without a Megazord with me on the sidelines. Udonna, can we transfer our powers to other people, even temporarily? I mean, Toby isn't my first choice, but he can keep a secret. I think."

"The Power is tied to you and you alone, Nick," Udonna said regretfully. "The monster's beam also enforced that. You and Vida are more tied to your Powers than ever before."

Nick grunted. "Crap. If anybody has an idea..."

Chip snaped his fingers suddenly. "I might. I just might. Hold on, I need to go check my comic book collection. NOBODY MOVE."

Everybody groaned. "Let's not, and say we did," Vida snapped, grabbing Chip's arm.

"Foolish human rabble!" he yelled, jerking himself free. "This could work."

Claire's voice intruded into the argument. "Hey, maybe we could - " She waved her wand around, causing a flurry of sparkles that sped through the room like they were being chased.

Sparkles zipped out from each of their bodies, joining the cloud she conjured like a swarm of bees.

"Whoa, what was that?" Xander asked as the sparkles came together to one side, chasing each other around in an endless game of tag.

The sparkles swirled faster and faster, until they seemed to form a continuous glow. Finally, they faded, coalescing into a guy with light brown hair in an outfit similar to Nick's, except the Red was dark, almost a maroon color. There was a small reddish streak in his bangs. He was raising his arms, looking at them as if he'd never seen before. All looked at the new figure in silence, only broken by Chip's "This is great!"

"And who in the heck is that?" Vida asked.

"Um... I don't... really know," Claire admitted.

"Yousuke," the man introduced myself. "I think I'm... I'm not sure, really. I don't think I existed before this."

"Nice to meet ya!" Chip said with great enthusiasm. Vida hit him in the chest.

"Yousuke?" Nick asked. "What kind of a name is that?" He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer on it, but somebody had to ask.

"Uh." Yousuke appeared to rack his brains. "I think it's Japanese. Am I Asian?"

Madison shook her head. "Not really."

"Someone 'round here must be an anime fan," Xander observed. He looked at Chip.

Chip held up his hands. "Not me, man. The most international thing I own geek-wise is 2000AD imports."

"I don't know much about anime," Madison said. "I'm into documentaries, not animation."

"Hey, don't look at me," Vida said, holding up her hands.

Xander shrugged. "Only thing I watch from abroad is Neighbours repeats my sister gets sent from a friend back in Melbourne."

"So, nobody's going to admit to being an anime addict?" Nick asked.

"Hey, it's not like it's terribly crucial to why Yousuke's here," Vida pointed out.

Nick lowered himself back onto the cot. "I'm too tired to argue about this. You guys tell me if you got everything sorted out with the magical guy when I wake up."

"Yeah, you'd better get some rest there, buddy," Xander said.

Chip bounded to Yousuke's side. "So how much do you remember about the world; the human condition? You can speak English all right."

Yousuke looked thoughtful. "I know there's a danger. I know where you guys work. Anything else really doesn't matter."

Xander thacked Chip across the chest. "Man after my own heart. Udonna, let's get this boy a uniform."

"Just a second!" Clare chimed in. "I've caused enough magical glitches to know you don't just go drafting one of them to fight Koragg. No offense, Yousuke."

"No offense taken," Yousuke said. "Though I do have a feeling that's what I was created for."

"As soon as we have determined what can be done with Nick, we shall run Yousuke through a series of tests to determine his prowess as a warrior. With your consent, of course," Udonna added.

Yousuke flashed Udonna a bright grin. "No problem."

"Hey, I'm still here," Nick objected. He felt woozy, yes, but he was still there.

Xander rubbed Nick's shoulder. "Buddy, we're just talking about a temp job here. We can't put you in any danger, and for once a spell of convenience is actually being convenient. We gotta move on that."

"Hey, I can be convienent," Yousuke said cheerfully. He looked like he was going to start hopping up and down any minute now.

Udonna cleared her throat. "Of that I have no doubt. Still, our utmost concern must be Nick's speedy recovery. Yousuke, I trust you will take no offense if I ask you to remain under observation in the meantime."

"Heck no!" he said with as much enthusiasm as anyone not prone to using profanity could. "It means Nicky and I can catch up!"

"Nicky?" Vida said, raising her eyebrows.

"Hey, I'm intimate with all of you," Yousuke said.

Xander beamed. "Oh, kid, do I have some plans for you when this gets sorted out."

"Let's so not go there," Vida said, stepping forward as if to protect Yousuke. "Let's get this monster, get me and Nick back to the right ages, and Yousuke can puff back to where he came from."

"She's got a point," Yousuke said. "I'm here to get Nicky and Vidie deaged."

Vida leapt towards Yousuke in an attempt to grasp his neck. "You don't legally exist, it's not manslaughter if I killed you."

"Hey, calm down, Vidie, no harm, no foul," Yousuke said, dodging out of the way. "It's just that you're so... cute."

"DEATH KILL MURDER!" Yida yelled inarticulately.

"Hey, Vida? I don't think he really means it," Chip said, waving her off.

"I've got personality traits from all of you, Vidie... er, Vida." Yousuke looked at her while emphasizing her proper name. "While I'm still around to get you to the right age, I guess you'll have to put up with me, hm?"

Vida growled, but her posture relaxed. Madison snatched her younger-older sister under her arm like an errant football. "Thank you," she said to Yousuke with sincerity.

Yousuke looked thoughtful. "I seem to have picked up some good personality traits and some bad ones from you guys while I was being created. I'll try to de-emphasize the bad ones, okay?"

Xander bounded to his side. "Perchance, did you inherit any of my most glowing traits?"

"More like he got all of your worst traits," Vida muttered.

"That," Xander replied, "is like saying a diamond has faults. They're only there to make it more exquisite."

"I don't know," Yousuke finally answered. "I can only tell that I have them, not who I got them from."

"Anyway," Madison said quietly, breaking up the discussion, "Do we, or don't we use Yousuke until we can de-age Nick?"

Nick struggled back to his feet. "Don't we. Uh, nay. Whichever."

"Hey, hey, hey," Xander said, trying to get Nick to stay down. "He sounds like a good sport to me."

Madison's attention was drawn to a panel. "We can't worry about Yousuke now, that monster's back!"

---

Still have class. More writing later.


End file.
